[Android App] Newsensus is back 1-Feb-2021

 It has been a long while since Newsensus App was unpublished from Google Play. The latest version is being available on Google Play, coming with some security updates. 

Why Newsensus?

Newsensus is a free app available on Google Play. The features which differentiates from others are that 1) news sources are geologically diversified, 2) the radar charts indicate the trends of each topic and 3) the app allows you to switch the story from one economic zone to another.

For the sake of News, it is inevitable for ones to see a story as fairly sophisticated while for someone else to see the story as biased or even a fake. Checking biases is much harder than checking facts because the facts are more objective than the biases which are rather subjective. Our answer to this is to quantify such biases by referring different stories from the world. If the biases are inevitable, you'd better to know them at least before reading the stories.

Here is the short slides briefly showing how Newsensus works.

Check out Newsensus on Google Play.

Why the internal market bill is controversial in Brexit-deal?

The last September, UK politics reopened arguments about the Brexit-deal by introducing an internal market bill which could potentially breach the international law. It was a bit sensational as former PMs, including David Cameron and Theresa May joined to condemn the bill.

BBC news: Fifth ex-PM speaks out against post-Brexit bill

David Cameron has become the fifth former prime minister to criticise a new bill attempting to override the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

No 10 says the Internal Market Bill was a "critical piece of legislation for the UK".

But Mr Cameron said he had "misgivings" over it and breaking an international treaty should be the "final resort".

Former Tory PMs Theresa May and Sir John Major, and Labour's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have condemned the plan. 

Since then, most of the critics focused on the government's attempting to override the Brexit withdrawal deal and a possibility of breaching the international law. But it seems little is said about how the controversial bill could fail to abide the law.

It is a little patchy information below but it is basically about the Northern Ireland Protocol preventing a hard border between Northern Ireland and Irish Republic.

BBC news: Brexit: Ministers plan laws overriding part of withdrawal deal

Meanwhile, the government will publish its Internal Market Bill - designed to protect trade arrangements between the four parts of the UK - on Wednesday.

This could contradict the Northern Ireland Protocol, set up to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which many fear could be detrimental to peace.

The protocol says Northern Ireland will follow some EU customs rules - meaning customs declarations for goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, as well as some new checks on goods going from Great Britain into Northern Ireland - after the transition period.

The Financial Times said the bill would "eliminate" the legal force of the Withdrawal Agreement, struck less than a year ago between the UK and EU, in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs.

On the other hand, what the new bill rules:

BBC news: What is the row over UK 'internal markets' all about?

Right now, the UK is part of the European single market, with jointly agreed regulations and standards right across the continent.

Post-Brexit, the UK government wants to continue to have a joint market across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - the "internal market".

But instead of the rules and regulations around things like food and air quality and animal welfare being set in Brussels, now they have to be set closer to home - and there is a row over who should have the final say.

Many powers are set to be directly controlled by the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish administrations, in fields including food labelling, energy efficiency and support for farmers.

However, the UK government has said the devolved administrations will still have to accept goods and services from all other parts of the UK - even if they have set different standards locally. 

The latter implies that Northern Ireland will have to accept some goods and services from the other administrations of UK regardless of the different quality standards on goods and services. The former says Northern Ireland will follow some EU customs rules so as to prevent the hard border between them and Irish Republic. Those lead to a conclusion that the argument arises because Northern Ireland will have to accept the goods and services from the other parts of UK, which do not complying with EU custom rules to be applied. Having sorted out so far, this is a substance of the argument about the internal market bill.

Coronavirus outbreak was just an excuse and the worse will be coming to the market?

Vito Corleone (From Wikipedia)
The son of Antonio Andolini.

Don Ciccio had killed Antonio Andolini, and the Don was revenged by Antonio's son. At least, Don Ciccio was right about his future.

Don Ciccio:

...When he grows, he'll grow strong.  ...When he's a man, he'll come for revenge.

As written on the last post, the oil price digged further its bottom at which WTI crude oil contract for May reached in negative territory. Theoretically, the possibility of negative price is anticipated because of the shortage of oil storage. But I thought OPEC+ or US will prevent from the situation being worse.
Some says that hedge funds or speculators sold their holding contracts as the uncertainty of storage availability and its costs ahead.

The Irish Times: What do negative oil prices mean for the prices you pay at the pump?
... The reasons for this are complicated, but essentially for every barrel of oil consumed in the world, 30 are traded. This means that financial institutions and hedge funds are speculating now on the price of oil that will be delivered in May. Contracts for May had to be settled by April 21st, and with a raft of traders left with oil contracts on their hands in the face of extremely low demand, they were forced to offload their contracts at negative prices.

DJIA recovered since the end of March.

While the oil markets tumbled, the global stock markets have recovered since the end of last month. DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) has recovered about 5,000 points (27.0%) though it is still over 6,000 lower than the record high.
Some big economies, including US and Germany, are trying to reopen their businesses as they have been suffering from the lockdown for a month. It maybe a positive sign for the market but the things are not so simple either.

What was the outlook of the financial markets before Coronavirus outbreak? The major stock indices were climbing to the historic high in recent years to decades. No one was thinking the Tokyo Olympic game would be postponed except for some conspiracy theorists.
But on the other hand, PMI numbers in the largest economies have already been in lower territory in which the outlooks were negative. German manufacturing PMI has been well below 50.0 since the beginning of 2019, and the numbers in Eurozone and Japan have been more or less similar to German one, too. UK has been struggling to get Brexit done for 2019 (since 2016). US economy has been relatively stronger than others while its PMI was also in downward trend.
While the stock markets were bullish, the real economies had started slow down even before Coronavirus outbreak. PMI is utilized as a leading indicator to forecast the economic confidence in coming months. As the PMI numbers were below 50.0 in 2019, the recent market crash could have some senses of the adjustment between the market and real economy. Coronavirus just triggered it, perhaps.
By the way, how about today's PMIs? In Eurozone, the manufacturing PMI is 33.6 as of Apr-2020, the lowest since the financial crisis 2008. The composite PMI, overview of service and manufacturing sectors, is overwhelmingly 13.5, the record low.
Reminding it is a leading indicator, the economy is expected to be worse in coming months as the impact of lockdown will be realized in our economies. When it did, we would see something worse in the financial market than the last one in 2008.

When the bubble grows, the bursting impact will grow stronger. When the time comes, it devastates the market and economy.

Where is the bottom of oil price? This uncertainty could be for months to years.

From Wikipedia

Dominic Greene:

Since 1945, 17% of the planet's vegetated surface has been irreversibly degraded. The Tierra Project is just one small part of a global network of Eco Parks that Greene Planet has created to rejuvenate a world on the verge of collapse.

The crude oil price has plunged as Coronavirus outbreak halted numerous businesses which consume the oils, and OPEC+ failed to agree on cutting oil production last month. Although the latest headline brought some hope as Saudi Arabia and Russia are expected to reach deal, there is still a room that the price is going down further until business is back to normal.

WTI Crude oil price
The lowest roughly in two decades.

According to World Oil: Trump may rent Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage to U.S. drillers,
The U.S. reserve, which was set up after the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, has a maximum storage capacity of about 713.5 million barrels in salt caverns across the U.S. Gulf Coast. It now contains about 635 million barrels. The string of coastal salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas that comprise the reserve were designed for long-term storage and are not geologically suited for quick withdrawal of crude. For that reason, some industry observes have criticized the idea as ill-advised.

The considerations to make space in the reserve available come after congressional Democrats blocked a request by the administration to appropriate $3 billion in funds to buy as much as 77 million barrels of oil for its emergency stockpile in an effort by President Donald Trump to support the domestic industry and boost reserves at cheap prices.

It says almost 90% of storage capacity for the oil reserve is already filled up, which means the rest of capacity, only 10% can be available for the further reserve. Whoever US or US drillers will purchase the oil for strategic reserve, it cannot be kept without storage space. It is not clear that the oil companies can slash their output quickly. When the oil could go nowhere but consumption, the price would be down further.

Euro area's composite PMI
Hardly seen it less than 30...

According to the Coronavirus projection of United States as of 3-Apr-2020, it suggests number of new death cases can reach at the peak around middle of this April and the number will be zero near the beginning of August. It sounds some sense of relief during such gloomy days under lockdown. But there is another risk ahead as second wave of the virus can devastate again as China is facing.

The latest PMI, GDP forecast or any statistics indicate the worst outlook which is comparable with the last financial crisis in 2008 or even the great depression in 1929.

CITY A.M.: Coronavirus: Eurozone economy suffers record hit in March
The Eurozone economy suffered the biggest blow on record in March, survey data has shown, as coronavirus containment efforts all but stopped activity.

The IHS Markit purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – a closely watched gauge of the health of the euro area economy – crashed to 29.7 in March from 51.6 in February. A score below 50 indicates contraction.

It is still unclear if the current draconian measures enforced in leading countries of global economy are lifted soon. Actually, it is unlikely as risk of the second wave does not allow them to do so. The lockdown will continue, and people's activities will be strictly limited for months to years. Who wants to burn a lot of oil those time?

What can rejuvenate a world on the verge of collapse?

Coronavirus blasting all the goddamn markets

The Underboss (from Wikipedia)

The Godfather's son was so temper as he killed himself consequently.

Sonny Corleone:

... So why don't he just blast whoever's in the goddamn car?

Since the later last month, the global stock markets overwhelmingly plunged as if we are at verge of a new great recession or so. US's DJIA had the record drop yesterday at nearly 3,000 points. The commodity markets were also down.

While Fed finally set their target rate at around zero, the market reaction was pessimistic. First, the financial policy cannot be a breakthrough against the epidemic. Second, the investors woke up, recognizing how serious of the economic damage. Third, the stock markets were overvalued (Bubble) until Coronavirus outbreak.

Coronavirus brought anxious tension among people in the world where no one is virtually away from the threat of Coronavirus. Once it started spreading into the countries outside of China, the economic and social activities have gradually shrunk. Many events were banned. Bars or nightclubs were closed. Tougher boarder controls. Details of such rules are different between countries, but it continues for a month to a few months at least.

As mentioned in the last post, the airline operators are highly likely at risk because of non essential travel bans. The measure has escalated since then.

BBC: Coronavirus: Europe plans full border closure in virus battle
The European Commission is planning to ban all non-essential travel throughout Europe's Schengen free-travel zone as more countries close their borders to try to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she would ask leaders to implement the measures on Tuesday.

"The less travel, the more we can contain the virus," she said.

FTSE 100
Financial crisis (2007 - 08), down 40% from peak

People are cashing out rather than holding shares, and some goes for panic buying. Even if shelfs in supermarkets become empty, you will see new stocks arrived there next day as far as supply chain works and production of goods continues. In other words, if the supply chain or production were limited or halted as the tougher measure, it could be disastrous. People rush to buy limited stock of foods, hygiene sprays or toilet rolls. Hyperinflation or stagflation could be possible in such situation.

FTSE 100
Last 2 years, down 33% from peak.
Another 10% brings larger dip than financial crisis 2007-08

When it comes to the financial markets, FTSE 100 was at 6,580 on 1-Mar and now marked at 5,217, about 33% down from the peak in last 2 years. During the last financial crisis in 2007-08, FTSE 100 was down by 40% from the peak. Today's market, the index has dropped 33% from the peak in less than a month. It looks just a matter of time until the latest crisis surpasses the one in 2007-08.


In the future when the world finally defeat the Coronavirus threat, financial markets and people's activities would be back in normal manners. But by that time, all the goddamn markets might be blasted in unprecedented scale.

Caporegime says: These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years.

The Caporegime (from Wikipedia)

The Godfather had many friends with loyalty.

Peter Clemenza:

These things gotta happen every five years or so,... ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one.

In contrast with the consecutive downfalls of global stock prices in last week, it has been on a bumpy ride this week in US market particularly, partially because of Fed rate cut which was unexpected and little explained and Super Tuesday's outcome.

Meanwhile, it is a time to back in reality, isn't it?  After Fed rate cut and Mr.Biden's revival on Super Tuesday, there is no pragmatic solution combating Coronavirus. What is a kind of solution is a vaccine development whose production is expected after months to more than a year. So far, it looks good news are lasting and shadow of bad news ahead.

Flybe, one of the largest regional airlines in Europe, is dragged into administration. Even before the Coronavirus outbreak, Flybe has 40 years of its history and had expected to have a rescue deal to manage the difficult situation. Its employees' jobs are at risk.

China is pushing their business back to normal as much as possible, but the recovery is not enough for global economy. Outbreaks in other parts of the world are spreading faster and faster.
After all, consumers' demands are fading day after day as Coronavirus spread, except for panic buying at some supermarkets. The new James Bond film, which was planned to be released on April, was postponed until November.

The atmosphere surrounding the world is becoming reminiscent of the financial crisis in 2007-2008. The financial crisis 2007-2008 stemmed from credit crunch. The recent financial uncertainty is caused by the fear of epidemic and its economic effects. But the epidemic could not only lead travel industries including Airline companies like Flybe into the dark, but also cause domino effects in other industries, including financial industries.
Airline operators are financed through Structured finance, so called Aviation finance or Aircraft finance. They rise funds in both equity and debt for multi-billion dollars to purchase their Aircrafts to operate. The expected revenue is a source of the repayment and is supposed stable without such pandemics or wars. Reduction of the scheduled flights leads to their revenue cuts. Apart from the basic measures, business insurance or collaterals to avoid delinquency, they may have to cut labor costs. It has started already. (See below)

Sky News: Virus turbulence could give airlines cover to make cuts
Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline and the third-largest in Europe by stock market value, unveiled a cost-saving programme in which it will suspend new hires and offer employees unpaid leave in an attempt to mitigate the financial impact of coronavirus.
...
And it was revealed that KLM, which is the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, Europe's fifth-largest carrier by market value, is to delay all IT and property projects that have not yet got underway and will be suspending hiring in certain departments.

Even such big names like Lufthansa and KLM struggle due to the Coronavirus outbreak, needless to say that the smaller operators suffer badly. In case that cost cutting is not sufficient, the subordinated debt repayments are first affected and the operator maybe forced into insolvent when senior debt repayments are failed. The insurance companies have to recover the loss, but the pandemic bring such unfortunes for virtually all the airline operators and travel related industries as chain effects. It can be a global credit crunch that we don't know the exact figure yet.

The financial markets have experienced some sharp up and downs for the last 10 years, but they are nothing more than the financial crisis 2007-2008, aren't they?  The Caporegime knows what happens now, perhaps.

Godfather says: I spent my whole life trying not to be careless.

Godfather's discipline is worth not only for mafia nor yakuza but also for investors and traders.

Don Vito Corleone:

I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can be careless. But not men.

Since the worst week for global stock markets, investors and traders should have been pessimistic under the market turmoil due to the fear of Covid-19 so called Coronavirus.
As the share price plunged overwhelmingly plunged last week, modest bounce back could have been expected at the beginning of this week. But how many of them could confidently foresee today's market swing, particularly in US markets where DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) shot up above 5.0% in a single day?  There were some positive signs in the markets today, as Bank of Japan and Bank of England ensured their help for the Coronavirus crisis, and Mr.Trump slammed Fed "slow to act". Meanwhile, RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) will be the first to have the rate decision at 2:30PM on 3-Mar (Local time). Some says that RBA will be forced to cut the rate because of the market turmoil, but US markets closed with huge recovery today and it became unclearer if RBA will cut or keep the rate.

While the markets turned positive today, we didn't get any breakthrough against Coronavirus. For a last few days, we were talking about supply chain problem, travel restriction and economic damage by them. Some says the global GDP could lose a quarter of the forecast even in "mild" scenario whose other scenarios are "modest" and "severe" respectively. The number of cases are now increasing outside of China, including Europe and US as concerned.

As more analysis results came out over the weekend, those mitigated uncertainty of the impact of Coronavirus. But negative outlook looms for coming months possibly beyond 2020. During the financial crisis in 2008, the markets had been down to the bottom on a bumpy ride. It is still likely to see the second round of massive sell-off near future, perhaps in this month again. Who knows?
That's why we have to learn from Godfather's discipline.

Seems little help the financial market as invisible Coronavirus surrounding globally 1-Mar-2020

Since the late last Friday to over the weekend, some good news and bad news are running the world. But as Covid-19 cases continue increasing globally, there is little sign mitigating uncertainty surrounding the societies.

Global stock markets have suffered from massive sell off, which is the worst since the financial crisis in 2008. Although Fed implied their rate cut in March and it recovered the US markets before closing on last Friday, more and more Coronavirus cases are confirmed day after day.

Apart from Coronavirus stories, US and Taliban signed a peace agreement on Staturday, which is a good news in those days. However, it is not good enough news to boost the current grim mood because it is unclear if the agreement actually bring a peace in Afghanistan for coming months. (The Guardian: US and Taliban sign deal to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan)
By the way, the market would little care about another good news of Mr.Boris Johnson's private.

FTSE 100
Financial crisis (2007 - 2008), down 40% from peak.

Traders are keen to the tomorrow's market opening of which Asian & Pacific market is on top. Even though the major global markets are closed, the weekend markets help to anticipate the next market opening.

Hong Kong HS50 (Hong Kong),
DAX 30 (Germany),
FTSE 100 (UK),
DJIA (US)
at IG group respectively.

FTSE 100
Last 2 years, down 16% from peak. Just a beginning perhaps...

Unless any breakthroughs are implemented, this economic stagnation would be just a beginning and it is too soon to hunt cheap shares. Japan's PM Shinzo Abe called unprecedented school closure in nationwide this weekend, and it will be effective from Monday tomorrow. No such announce has been called for workers yet while some parents who have small children are arguing about difficulty to take care of their children during the school closure. If the situation is becoming worse, it could be inevitable for the government to limit the economic activities and it will be certainly a critical damage to the vulnerable economy as Chinese economy is slowing down already.
European countries are also reacting to Coronavirus spreading by emergency measures, such as cancellation of public gatherings or stricter boarder controls. Travel agencies or flight operators must be affected pretty badly.
Of course, United State is not the exception. It just recorded a first death case by Covid-19 this weekend. US stock market has been strongest for last years, but it is not clear how much Fed rate cut could stop further panic in the markets.

Unlike the financial crisis in 2008, the coronavirus does not only crash the financial markets, but possibly cease the most of people's activity. Nobody wants such draconian measures taken in Wuhan, but nobody wants to be infected by Covid-19, either. In short term, people will demand mental care, rather than vaccine which it expects to take more than a year to be supplied.

How hard to reach the trade agreement between UK and EU?

At the end of last January, UK finally relinquished the EU membership in term. British MEPs, including Mr.Farage seen one of the most prominent Brexiter, have left Brussels.

Although it just started the transition period and people's activities are not practically changed until the period, it is likely the end of "Endless" talks between UK and EU about Brexit. Now, British government whose cabinet ministers were shuffled last week has to negotiate the trade deal with European Commission. The end of the transition period is set on the end of 2020 unless it is agreed to extend the period between UK and EU while Mr.Johnson does not want to do.

Even if UK (and EU) expect to reach the agreement, how it is realistic to reach a decent deal in a year?  Due to the tight deadline, both sides tend to prioritize the negotiation issue on top. But the free trade agreements between EU and other large economies took much more time to be finalized, which also requires ratification. Here are some examples.

[EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement]
 The negotiation had started since 2013,
 Reached at the agreement on July-2018,
 Ratified on December-2018,
 Has been effective since 1-February-2019.

About 6 years to the enforcement.

[EU-Singapore FTA]
 The negotiation had started since 2010,
 Reached at the agreement on October-2018,
 EU member states endorsed on November-2019,
 Has been effective since 21-November-2019.

About 9 years to the enforcement.

[CETA, EU-Canada Economic and Trade Agreement]
 The negotiation had started since ?,
 The negotiation ended on August-2014,
 The agreement was signed on October-2016,
 Has been effective since 21-September-2017.

More than 3 years + the negotiation period, to the enforcement.

Abolishing the relationship when UK was a member state of EU and building the trade agreement from scratch, one year sounds too short to enforce the agreed deal. It implies No-deal Brexit is inevitable rather than it as the worst option. In case of No-deal Brexit, WTO rules will be basically applied to the trades between EU and UK, which is likely to happen.
The market seemed not pricing in No-deal Brexit, but as soon as UK legally rejects any extensions of the trade talk, the market will pessimistically react.

[Updated on 16-Oct-2020]

UK PM mentioned Britons should get ready for no-deal Brexit today as it is still unclear to reach an agreement so-called Canada-style deal. He would seek an alternative like Australia-style deal.

The Guardian: Boris Johnson tells UK: prepare for a no-deal Brexit

“A lot of progress has been made on such issues as social security and aviation, nuclear cooperation, and son on,” he said, but “for whatever reason, it’s clear from the [EU] summit that after 45 years of [UK] membership they are not willing, unless there’s some fundamental change of approach, to offer this country the same terms as Canada”.

He said that given there were only 10 weeks left until the transition period ended, he had to make a judgment about the likely outcome and to prepare the country.

“I concluded that we should get ready for 1 January with arrangements that are more like Australia’s – based on simple principles of global free trade,” he told reporters in a pooled broadcast statement.

EU and Australia started their trade negotiation in May 2018, and it seems the agreement has not been made by now since the negotiation is kicked off. It looks unrealistic for UK to reach a full agreement with EU by the end of 2020.

Ref.
EU-Japan trade agreement on track to enter into force in February 2019
The EU-Singapore agreements explained
Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
CETA – The European-Canadian Economic and Trade Agreement
Australia - Trade - European Commission

BBC news: Brexit: What is the transition period?

FX Volatility bounce back in 2020?

In 2019, FX traders probably wondered the volatility had diminished in pairs of the major currencies though GBP occasionally got bumpy ride because of the Brexit uncertainty.

[CBOE/CME] EUVIX

The volatility of EURUSD has been approaching to the lowest level at remarkable points. According to "FT: Traders twiddle thumbs as volatility fades in currency markets", EURUSD 1 month implied volatility is around the lowest in last two decades. The volatility marked around the lowest level (below 5.00%) in 2007 and 2014, and it now stays near that level.
In the mean time, central banks show little clue about when they are likely to tighten the monetary policies in a coming months or years. The traders cannot effectively use the monetary policy changes as trading opportunities in such market.
Even though few indications of tightening the monetary policy, the volatility is having less room to decline further, which has already reached the lowest in two decades.
Apart from the monetary policy, we are facing geopolitical events which are expected to significantly affect the financial markets, such as US presidential election, Brexit negotiation between UK and EU27 and US-Iran tension which arose very recently.
Whether it is anticipated or not, the market was quiet in 2019. Now in 2020, we will see if it was Calm before the Storm.

[Added on 21-Nov-2020]

Since EUVIX bottomed out early 2020, it peaked in March as financial markets were fluctuated by fear of spreading Covid-19. EUVIX is down from the peak but stays well over the bottom of early 2020.

Mr.Johnson won decisive majority, but the market doesn't look optimistic enough?

[EURGBP is approaching the level near Brexit referendum 2016]

The UK election yesterday resulted a big trophy for Tory and Mr.Johnson, and British pound scarcely reacted stronger before the exit polls released. While the FX market responded optimistically as concerns over the hung parliament faded away, it doesn't mean No-deal Brexit is ruled out from the plan.

On the Brexit day which is no later than 31-Jan-2020, UK actually doesn't get Brexit done, but they just start the trade talk with EU. The trade deal is expected to be agreed and ratified by Dec-2020, otherwise the consequence could be No-deal Brexit on Jan-2021 unless the extension is given.

Observing EURGBP market, GBP moved stronger yesterday but it is still weaker than the level before Brexit referendum 2016. It also implies that the market cannot be as optimistic as it was before the referendum. Perhaps, No-deal possibility is still priced in.

Ref. BBC News: Brexit: What happens now?

European Banks continue cutting jobs

It has been for about two years since I summarized job cut announcements by European banks. These days, the glooming trend still continues with a bunch of job cut announcements from large European banks.
As mentioned in the past post, digitalization play a role to automate the internal processes which were once handled by the employees whose salaries were relatively higher. More and more you get benefit from your retail banking on your smart phones or laptops, banking jobs not only of traditional services at the local branches, but also the intermediate process such as risk assessment are tightened. (Perhaps, no longer needed.)  This phenomenon seems be irreversible, and therefore this is considered as a structural change in the banking industry. Where the bankers goes after dropping out?

As if joining to the trend, the car industry is also about to squeeze jobs, attributing to a rise of the electric vehicles. A recent story tells that Audi plans massive job cuts in their home country Germany, a champion of the industry.

BBC: Audi to cut 9,500 jobs to fund electric car push
Carmaker Audi is to cut 9,500 of its 61,000 jobs in Germany between now and 2025 to make more money available for electric vehicles and digital working.
The cuts - which aim to save €6bn (£5.1bn) - will be achieved through an early retirement programme.
But the Volkswagen-owned firm also said its move into electric cars would mean the creation of up to 2,000 jobs.
It comes less than a fortnight after Daimler said it would cut more than 1,000 jobs by the end of 2022.
The car industry is facing a downturn in key markets, including China, as well as increased costs as it meets tougher European Union emissions regulations and the costly switch to electric vehicles. Audi saw falling sales, revenues and operating profits in the first nine months of 2019.

And some stories of job cut announcements in banking industry, too.

FT: Europe’s banks slash 60,000 jobs as outlook turns negative

Bloomberg: Global Bank Job Cull Tops 75,000 This Year as UniCredit Cuts

IBT: Italy's Largest Bank In Trouble? UniCredit To Layoff 8,000 Jobs Amid Western Europe Struggles

Some says it is "Japanification", the deja vu which Japan have experienced decades of economic stagnation. But we are facing structural changes in the industries rather than the market bubble. In Europe, it seems be even worse than Japanese deja vu in the last decade.

Swiss Franc could surge in a coming week? Trend and Momentum 26-Nov-2019

Looking at the latest trend and momentums of EURCHF and USDCHF, they are expected to be into downward trend which means Swiss Franc will be relatively stronger against both Euro and US Dollar.

EURCHF Trend and Momentum

USDCHF Trend and Momentum

On this Wednesday, ZEW (Centre for European Economic Research) will publish their survey expectations which consist of business conditions, employment conditions and the other factors in Switzerland. (ZEW Survey - Expectations)

If the actual figure beat the market consensus or expectation, it would be positive for Swiss Franc, which could lead the currency more bullish Of course, in case the figure disappointing the market, Swiss Franc can be into bearish trend. The point is that ZEW publication on Wednesday is a remarkable one which could affect Swiss Franc fundamentally.

Regarding US Dollar, much more economic events are on ahead in coming days. (See the economic calendar on QROSS X). Perhaps, USDCHF can be more volatile than EURCHF in a coming week.


To check Forex trading signals, download Forex Signal by QROSS X.

Upcoming (Geo)political events (Brexit, Elections)

Brexit, US-NorthKorea summit, US-China trade war,... Several geopolitical uncertainties are surrounding the global economy. Here is just a list of upcoming events that could fluctuate the market in coming months. Some more events maybe added.

12-Mar-2019 The meaningful vote on Brexit deal (Downing Street insists)
 Guardian: Brexit meaningful vote will go ahead, says No 10, despite talks stalling
 >> Downing Street said the talks had been “difficult”, but stressed the vote would take place on Tuesday, as committed by May. If it is lost, MPs will vote on successive days on whether to block a no-deal Brexit and whether to extend the departure date.

29-Mar-2019 Brexit or the departure date extended?
>> After the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal, It will be clear whether Brexit happens on 29-Mar or is delayed.

9-Apr-2019 Israeli general election
>> The current PM Mr.Netanyahu is facing accusation of corruption, who have been PM since 2009. 

28-Apr-2019 Spanish general election
>> The right wing populist party Vox is rising while People's Party (PP) which is the current majority is likely to struggle. The centrist party Ciudadanos have not seemed to appeal enough to get majority at the parliament.

23 and 26-May-2019 European Parliament election
 The Economist: Volt wants to become the first pan-EU political party
 >> Volt, now has thousands of members across 30 countries (the eu28 plus Albania and Switzerland), and will run in the European Parliament elections next year. On October 27th about 450 delegates met in Amsterdam to approve the party’s programme, in a sea of youthful optimism and multilingual policy wonkery.

Energy Transition long way to be real

Energy Transition whose concept includes the matters of energy technology or fuel sources, is naturally posed with "Climate Change". Fossil fuels are typically targeted in such discussion because of Carbon dioxide (CO2) being produced and pollution, too.
While the Energy transition is an idealistic concept, the reality seems be that people on this planet continue reliant on fossil fuel including oil as much as now. According to the report OIL 2018, it indicates that world oil demand increases by more than 5.5% until 2023. World Oil Outlook of Opec in 2017 has also indicated that Eurasia primary energy demand of oil, coal and gas increase 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.7% per year respectively by 2040. Nuclear energy demand is expected to outpace those energy sources, but it is behind higher risk at accidents, which was reminded from Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Big players in the market, are ironically investing into the oil production infrastructures these days, according to the below sources. Perhaps, it is too early to restructure your portfolio, adapting to Energy transition, unless your investment horizon is beyond next 50 years?

[Bloomberg] KKR, BlackRock Are Set to Invest $4 Billion in Adnoc Pipeline
KKR & Co. and BlackRock Inc. are set to invest in Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s pipeline network in a deal valued at $4 billion to $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with knowledge of the matter.

[The Economist] ExxonMobil gambles on growth
A fossil-fuel titan’s strategy is at odds with efforts to hold back climate change
.....
On February 1st the company announced annual results, declaring itself on track for ambitious growth. By 2025, oil and gas production will be 25% higher than in 2017.

Banking job cuts announced in a last few years

After the financial crisis in 2008, many of large banks had introduced job cuts though some might have hired back as the market recovered. Investment banking division supposed to be in a main focus of the layoffs that time.

In a last few years, 2016 - 2017 particularly, job cuts have been introduced from retail sector to investment banking. Some European banks plan to cut thousands jobs, including German, Italian and Dutch banks. Japanese banks, which are usually unwilling to cut jobs, plan to cut multi thousands of jobs in next 10 years, and AI is likely to play a part of roles used to be operated by bank staffs. CEO at UBS also hinted 30,000 workers could be shed in the years ahead due to the technological advances.
Some of you who has been looking for banking jobs in recent years could feel how banking job offers have disappeared from the job boards.

Actually, some bankers tell that many staffs in Front Office to Back Office play on the middle of business flows, scrolling, typing and clicking on business softwares. It sounds that these jobs could be replaced by more advanced softwares which directly connect from business front to the end. One software could shed dozen of jobs in each department. Complex risk calculation is just a pile of mathematical formulae, but it would not be difficult to write in source codes.

Here are some stories about the banking job cuts, published since 2016.

Nordea Bank’s 6,000 Job Cuts Are Just the Beginning, Union Says
Nordea has just said it intends to get rid of 4,000 full-time employees and 2,000 consultants. Those announcements will be made internally and department by department at regular intervals over the coming years, the bank has said.

Commerzbank to cut 7,800 jobs in Germany: Handelsblatt
Commerzbank said last September it planned to cut 9,600 jobs, more than a fifth of its workforce, but trade union Verdi has said the total would actually end up being lower due to already agreed cuts and the usual process of staff attrition.

Deutsche Bank's CEO Hints at Thousands of Job Cuts
Cryan has warned repeatedly that technology will allow big savings across his sprawling empire, and recent media reports suggest he’s under increasing pressure from shareholders to deliver, having also suspended the bank’s regular dividend. Only 4,000 of the 9,000 job cuts promised under a five-year restructuring plan–announced in late 2015–have so far taken place.

ABN Amro Slashes 60% of Senior Management After Staff Cuts
ABN Amro, which is 70 percent owned by the Dutch government following a state rescue, said in November it would cut 1,500 jobs as it steps up cost reductions. The bank, which employed 26,500 people last year, said its total workforce is expected to decline by 13 percent by 2020. The Dutch government has said it plans to gradually exit its holding in the bank.

ING announces 7,000 job cuts as unions condemn 'horror show'
ING’s plans to shed 7,000 jobs and invest in its digital platforms to make annual savings of €900m by 2021 has drawn swift criticism of the Netherlands’ largest financial services company from unions.
The layoffs represent slightly less than 12% of ING’s 52,000 workforce, because nearly 1,000 are expected to come at suppliers rather than at the bank itself.

Barclays axes 13,600 jobs in 9 months
Staley said at a conference in March that more than 6,000 positions had gone in his first 100 days in charge, marking a sharp acceleration in job reductions in the past four years, and his latest estimate shows the pace of cuts has continued.
Staley, who started in December, cut 1,200 jobs in the investment bank in January as he pulled back from Russia, Brazil and seven countries in Asia.

BNP Paribas to cut 5 percent of investment banking jobs in UK - source
BNP plans to axe 233 British jobs but will also be hiring 60 employees there -- bringing the net headcount down to 3,105 in 2016 from 3,278 in 2015, the source said without giving details on where the job cuts would come from.
A similar net number, 179 in all, will be hired in lower-cost Poland, increasing its staff there by about half to 507 employees.

SocGen to Deepen French Job Cuts, Takes $678 Million Charge
As many as 900 reductions may take place as the domestic retail banking business cuts branch numbers, resulting in a charge of about 400 million euros, SocGen said in a statement. That’s on the top of the 2,550 positions the bank has already said it will eliminate. SocGen will book another exceptional expense related to three tax changes.

Banco Santander to reduce number of job cuts in Popular integration, union says
Banco Santander has reached an agreement with unions to reduce the number of staff affected by planned job cuts relating to the integration of Banco Popular by around 900, a union said on Tuesday.
Santander was originally planning more than 2,000 job cuts, of which 575 the bank was looking to accommodate within its other businesses, the Comisiones Obreras union said in early November.

More IT job cuts at HSBC
After laying off 120 IT staff in March, HSBC reportedly hit the same department with another round of job cuts yesterday. According to Apple Daily the bank has made a number of IT employees redundant.
The Hong Kong Banking Employees Association confirmed yesterday’s IT job cuts which affected around 10 employees. Although the scale of the cut is relatively small, the association condemned it and added it believes there will be more job cuts to come at the bank in the future.

No end in sight for Deutsche Boerse hiring freeze
The Frankfurt stock exchange suspended hiring at the end of February after revenues for the first two months of the year proved weak, but a person close to the process said there was still "no date for an end yet".

Credit Suisse to cut further 1,500 jobs in cost-cutting drive, sources say
Credit Suisse is to axe 1,500 jobs in London by the end of the year as the Swiss bank continues its ruthless cost-cutting drive, it is understood.
Some 2,500 London staff cuts took place last year as part of a major restructuring introduced by chief executive Tidjane Thiam in a bid to shave costs to less than 17 billion Swiss francs (£13.6 billion).
This brought the number of Credit Suisse employees in the City from over 9,000 in November 2015 to 6,500 by the end of last year.

National Australia Bank to Cut 4,000 Jobs in Automation Push
National Australia Bank Ltd. announced plans to eliminate 4,000 jobs, or about 12 percent of its workforce, joining the ranks of global lenders cutting costs and shedding staff in the face of advancing technology. 
“As we simplify, we automate processes and things move to digital channels, we will need less people,” National Australia Chief Executive Officer Andrew Thorburn told reporters in Sydney on Thursday. “The reshaping of the workforce is going to be significant.”

RBS to axe 680 jobs as it closes 259 branches
The bailed-out lender said 62 Royal Bank of Scotland and 197 NatWest branches would shut as customers increasingly turned to online banking.
The Unite union said 1,000 roles faced the axe, although the bank – which is 71% owned by the taxpayer – said the move would result in 680 redundancies after redeployment.

Royal Bank of Canada to Cut About 450 Jobs in Toronto Area
Canadian banks have announced more than 5,000 job cuts tied to restructurings during the past three years, though the number is probably higher since many announcements, including those by Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, didn’t disclose job figures. The country’s six largest lenders collectively employed about 363,600 workers as of the end of April, including 75,281 at Royal Bank, according to company disclosures.

Two decades after Japan’s financial crisis
In recent months, the megabank groups have announced plans to cut thousands of jobs and close outlets over the next several years. Mizuho Financial Group says it plans to reduce its employees including part-time staff, who numbered 79,000 at the end of last March, by roughly 19,000 by the end of fiscal 2026, and cut the number of the group banks’ outlets nationwide by about 100 to some 400 by the end of March 2025. Similarly, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group will cut its 40,000-plus workforce by 6,000 by the end of the 2023 business year. Combined with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which earlier said its would slash the workload equivalent of 4,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2019, the total number of jobs cut could add up to some 30,000 among the major banking groups.

Technology could help UBS cut workforce by 30 percent: CEO in magazine
Swiss bank UBS (UBSG.S) could shed almost 30,000 workers in the years ahead due to technological advances in the banking industry, Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti said in a magazine interview.

A new app Techsensus

Techsensus has been released and now available on Google Play. The latest stories about hot topics such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoins, Blockchain, Fintech, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, are listed on the app.
It allows to check different topics from different media on a single platform, listed by media consensus.

Back to 2008 - early 2010s, Smart phones and iPhone were clearly the following hot markets, and now it is not only Bitcoin but also VR/AR, AI are emerging.

You can download from Google Play for free.

(Techsensus [World Tech news])

Italy's referendum 4-Dec-2016

Today's Italian referendum is to decide if power of the senate house is being limited whereas they currently have equal power to the lower house.
In current system, it topically takes longer time to make a decision and enforce a new rule because the both houses have to agree with the new rule. The proposed system helps the government to reform Italian troubled banking industry for short term, while political risk remains for longer perspective, centralizing political power into fewer parties.
Choosing from Yes/No question in the referendum, Italy will face difficult situation whichever the result comes out. Simply, what is likely to happen?

(Yes to change)
Reform of the banking industry will be carried out, and market concerns are mitigated for short term.and EUR is likely stronger. The risk at political centralization would be negative but it is for a long term.

(No to change)
It is expected to take longer time to reform of the banking industry where they are suffering from bad performing loans. The prime minister, Matteo Renzi, would leave while the populist party Five Star Movement is earning more supports. It could lead to another uncertainty about populism movement in Europe, following such UK, France, Spain and Netherlands.
If the concerns at Italian banks and European politics intense, EUR will be bearish after the referendum.

Austrian presidential vote result will support positiveness in EUR at the market opening.

Theory of Interest Parity 17-Sep-2016

It hasn't been updated for such a long time, but you could see Forex analysis in our App on your own mobile.
Anyway, today's title is "Theory of Interest Parity". It theoretically defines the future Forex level by interest rates in two currencies of which are consisted in the Forex. When you have USD 1 million and invest it in interest rates, you can just invest in USD or in other currencies by exchanging. If the exchange rate unchanged, you would like to choose the currency whose interest rate is the highest. Obviously, it forms arbitrage and the fair return should be same in whichever currency you invest. In this sense, the market expects the future level of Forex that a currency of higher interest rate will be weaker than another of lower interest rate.
Of course, the future market does not always respond as theoretically expected. However, this theory is theoretically missing an important factor. Gap in quantity of issued currency will certainly affect to the future exchange rate. When the (expected) productivity is not growing and the central bank issues more notes in the currency, it implies the value of each unit of currency should be deducted.
Currently, EUR interest rate has been in negative territory. In the theory, the value of EUR is going up. But quantitative easing and weak productivity in Eurozone suppose that EUR will not be stronger as the theory expects. In fact, USD is still strong despite their relatively higher interest rate.

Brexit just made another market turbulence but see it in longer term

Brexit brought another turbulence into the financial market, GBP diving around 10% against JPY,  USD and massively down against other currencies.

This is absolutely massive scale, but is it so fresh? It is not. Nowadays, many people tend to forget something past so quickly as perhaps flood of information from the internet and media. Remembering just 1 year and a half ago, Swiss Franc (CHF) shot up around 15% against GBP, obviously whose scale is more than Brexit impact.

Lehman crisis had a clear message of credit market overestimated, and in fact that one biggest bank collapsed in public. So it is normal that people do not want Lehman's shares any more. 

Unlike insolvent, nothing will change from next Monday for British people's life drastically. To establish Brexit deal. it will take more than 2 years.

It is clear that British economy entered the unexplored zone meaning uncertainty. Detailed pros and cons are not on the main topic of referendum, but more or less driven by populism. Further research and publication make clear that economic effect at Brexit. Even a single sentence in EU constitute may clash GBP value.

It is understandable to sell GBP as its expected uncertainty, but why they buy JPY?  Looking at sovereign ratings or banking industry's ratings, there is no sign of strong-buy JPY. It had been traditionally always happened, but without economic reason, it is another sign of bended market.

As another trend, Gold price has started rising after years of downward trend.

By the way, keep eyes on Spanish election on Sunday

>> Brexit could influence Spanish election amid surge in support for hard-left party